Mapam

Mapam was an Israeli socialist political party that existed from 1948 to 1997. The party was originally Marxist-Zionist in its outlook, and it originally excluded non-Jews from party membership. Mapam had pro-Soviet views, and the social democrat David Ben-Gurion refused to include Mapam in his governing coalition. From 1949 to 1950, it reached its height with 20 Knesset members, but the party dropped to 15 members in 1951, notably including Rostam Bastuni, the first Israeli Arab to represent a Zionist party in the Knesset. After the purge of the Jews from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1953, Mapam realigned itself to a more social democratic outlook, and the party was included in Ben-Gurion's seventh and eighth governments after it renounced its Soviet support. The party continued to decline, however, holding just 3 seats in the 1988-1992 government. In 1997, the party merged into the social democratic Meretz party.